Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Marks Recognition Anniversary

When the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) broke ground on a
community center building in the spring of 2004, tribal leaders
envisioned it as an important gathering place, and said young members
would be shooting hoops inside the new gymnasium by the end of the
summer.

Three years later, the building is still unoccupied, sitting
half-finished on tribal lands.

The project serves as a symbol for the ongoing frustrations the
Aquinnah Wampanoags have experienced in their 20 years as a federally
recognized tribe. Originally funded by a federal grant, the community
center project still needs another $300,000 to carry it to completion.
Meanwhile, town officials in Aquinnah have pressured the tribe into
applying for town permits for the structure by the end of the month.

Like the community center so far, federal recognition has fallen
well short of original expectations. Funding is in decline, often coming
with strings attached, and sovereignty is so limited that it is nearly
nonexistent. Tribal members this week said that recognition has not
resulted in a stronger native community.

"In some ways, I think we had more autonomy before we ever had
federal recognition," tribal council chairman Donald Widdiss said
last week. "And our programs are never funded like they were
supposed to be, so we're always at a loss in terms of unmet
needs," he added.

"What was promised in federal recognition has just not come
true," said tribal member Berta Welch. "Frankly, it seems
like people cared more for the native cause before we ever had
recognition."

This week marked the 20th anniversary of federal recognition for the
Aquinnah Wampanoags. Noticeably, the milestone passed without any
fanfare.

The tribe may host an event to honor the anniversary later in the
year, but the tenor will be surely be different than the original
celebration some two decades ago, when tribal members toasted their
recognition with champagne, chocolate cake and words of unlimited
potential for the future.

Tribal member Jeffrey Madison, who served as chairman of the town
board of selectmen at the time, acknowledged this week that some of the
original sentiments may have been overinflated.

"Twenty years ago there weren't many of us who
understood what tribal recognition was. And I don't know that we
totally understand what it is today," he said this week.
"It's something that evolves as national Indian policy
evolves. It's always a constant battle to get out of federal
recognition what you had hoped."

Federal recognition establishes a government-to-government
relationship between a tribe and the United States, and makes a tribe
eligible for millions of dollars each year in federal funding for
housing, education, health care and other social services.

Members of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe in the last 20 years have
benefited from college scholarships and programs for elders and
families. The tribe now has its own health clinic, with a full-time
nurse and an in-house doctor twice a month. Environmental grants have
allowed the natural resources department of the tribe to help run a
shellfish hatchery and water quality testing facility.

Though tribal members acknowledge that such programs are not to be
discounted, they also note that the financial benefits are not as grand
as they are perceived to be. The funding also comes with stipulations on
how it must to be spent, resulting in a growing bureaucracy to manage
all of the necessary paperwork.

"A lot of times it's more strings and confusion than
actual programs," Mr. Madison said this week. "A significant
amount of money which could be better used providing services gets eaten
up accounting for those services that are received."

Funding for Native American tribes and programs is drying up across
the country.

With federal assistance, the Aquinnah Wampanoags in the mid 1990s
started a 30-unit housing complex on their tribal lands with the
intention of adding more units later. In the last decade, however,
funding has only allowed for a few more homes.

"Whenever the federal government promises you anything, it
always includes ‘subject to appropriation,' " said
tribal member Beverly Wright, who served as council chairman for 15
years. "And that's where they get you."

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who assisted the Aquinnah tribe during its
long struggle for recognition, acknowledged in a statement this week
that the federal government has not lived up to all of its promises.

"We have both a legal and a moral commitment to Native
Americans - our nation's first Americans - to provide
the necessary funds to meet the housing, health care and education
challenges in their communities," Senator Kennedy said.
"Congress has a responsibility to address the problems that have
been so long ignored, and to stop short-changing federal funds for
needed tribal programs."

The Aquinnah Wampanoags' battle for federal recognition began
unofficially in 1974, with the filing of a federal lawsuit alleging that
tribal lands were wrongfully taken from them in the 19th century. Tribal
members in the ensuing decade made frequent trips to Washington, D.C.,
for Congressional hearings. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs initially
turned down their request for federal recognition, but later reversed
itself for the first time in history.

After recognition was established in 1987, some 450 acres were
transferred back to the tribe - land that includes cranberry bogs,
Lobsterville dunes and the Gay Head Cliffs.

The 13 years between the initiation of the lawsuit and the final
recognition were marked by bitter disputes and litigation among tribal
members and townspeople, and tension and bitterness from that era still
lingers in town to this day. The town and the tribe in the last decade
have faced off over the housing complex, the rights of tribal rangers to
carry guns, and a shed and pier the tribe built on Menemsha Pond.

"It's been one headache after another, and who knows the
troubles we'll be facing in the future," Mrs. Welch said
this week. "Every time we take a step - whether it's
land issues, fishing, hunting or sovereignty - it has been
problematic," she continued.

"But in the end, those that have been against the tribe are in
for the long haul. Because of federal recognition, we are protected to
some extent, and our future generations are protected," Mrs. Welch
said. "So as long as we're federally protected, we'll
be here."

In the coming years, Mr. Madison said he hopes to see more
cooperation between the town and tribe, pointing to the restoration of
the Edwin Vanderhoop Homestead as a positive example. Ms. Wright said
the key to the tribe's success lies in becoming more economically
self-sufficient, so that it can rely less on federal funding.

Mr. Widdiss agreed with his fellow tribal leaders, but held back in
expressing outright optimism for the next 20 years.

"Optimism is based on having a degree of satisfaction,"
the tribal council chairman said last week. "And we can't be
satisfied with the way things are now."